This document applies only to Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0 and later.

Features and Benefits

Routing Capabilities

Maximum return on investment for contact centers is provided when your company's business rules can influence the behavior of the contact center. The routing capabilities of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express facilitate categorization and prioritization of customer contacts in a way that best meets your business requirements to help ensure that each contact is routed to the right agent at the right location the first time to maximize resolution on the first call. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express routing supports a wide range of routing logic that can accurately target and selectively route different classes of contacts, or even single out individual contacts for customized, prioritized routing treatment.

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express offers call-routing behaviors based on conditional events, such as time of day, day of week, or holiday routing, as well as the ability to specify service levels, move contacts between agent groups, and reprioritize contacts in the queue based on your business rules. With Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Premium, product integration with your enterprise's customer database can help ensure that the optimal routing decisions are made. In addition, the application can give agents extensive information on a per-contact basis through a customer-relationship-management (CRM) or other application screen pop.

Email Management

Customers are turning to company websites to locate information about products and services, to seek support, and to conduct transactions. In addition, customers are seeking alternative ways, such as email, to contact customer support centers, and the volume of incoming email interactions to contact centers is growing. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express offers the Agent E-Mail feature for email management.

Agent E-Mail is a basic email queuing and response system, designed specifically for Cisco Agent Desktop for the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express platform. Agent E-Mail is a zero-footprint feature that is tightly integrated into the agent desktop embedded browser, with controls built into the toolbar and display. It provides contact centers with the ability to queue and route email messages to staff and skilled agents, helping strike a balance between email and call-handling activities.

Directly integrated with Cisco Supervisor Desktop, Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization unifies the tactical tools that supervisors need to optimize team performance: Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization Workforce Management, Quality Management and Compliance Recording software. The Workforce Management component allows contact center managers to develop schedules for multiple sites, manage critical performance indicators, and manage real-time adherence to schedules. At the same time, the Quality Management software provides a voice transaction, compliance and evaluation solution, with optional, advanced, quality-management features such as screen recording for agent performance optimization and dispute resolution. Compliance Recording enables simplified telephony recording either by using preconfigured workflows with up to 100 percent recording, or on-demand recording through the recording API. Recordings can also be searched for and replayed to verify compliance or resolve disputes.

Outbound Dialing Capabilities

The Cisco Outbound Option complements the powerful inbound call-handling capability of the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express platform by offering blended preview outbound dialing capabilities. You can build campaigns to use preview dialing that is integrated with inbound calls to provide a blended inbound/outbound solution. These blended functions let agents serve both inbound calls and outbound campaign tasks when the inbound queue is empty, allowing for the most efficient use of agent resources for both inbound calls and outbound campaigns.

Computer Telephony Integration

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express can integrate with any CRM or other application that can run on the agent's Microsoft Windows desktop. Integration is achieved using a powerful real-time programmable CTI workflow engine that invokes keystroke-macro emulation to automate the transfer of caller-entered information, or through an external application action. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express provides powerful integration tools through support for custom Java classes and methods that can be invoked under real-time workflow control. These features facilitate the integration of Cisco Agent Desktop with other Windows and web-based applications with minimal software development.

In addition, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Premium allows you to apply HTTP integration to provide integration and a screen pop with browser-based applications such as Salesforce.com running in the Cisco Agent Desktop embedded browser.

Two, full self-service IVR ports are packaged at no additional charge with each Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Premium seat. In addition, support is provided for adding advanced self-service technologies such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Text to Speech (TTS), and Voice XML (VoiceXML). The application also supports real-time notification services through email and third-party fax or paging solutions, as well as the ability to invoke custom workflow processing (for example, web-based callback) through HTTP requests.

Cisco Unified CallConnector for Microsoft Dynamics CRM

The Cisco Unified CallConnector for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, part of the Cisco Unified Communications system, is a free middleware application that integrates Cisco Unified Contact Center Express with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 (Microsoft CRM). This integration with Microsoft CRM includes productivity-enhancement features for employees, such as screen pops, click to dial, and call tracking. The call information collected by the Cisco Unified CallConnector for Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows companies to make better business decisions based on actual call metrics pertaining to employees or customers.

Cisco Agent Desktop and Cisco Unified Presence Integration

Integration of Cisco Agent Desktop with Cisco Unified Presence extends real-time collaboration into the broader enterprise by integrating the contact center desktop applications with Cisco Unified Presence. Through this integration, agents and supervisors can collaborate with relevant colleagues and subject matter experts outside the contact center. For efficiency and convenience, the contact center defines the view to show only those colleagues that are appropriate for agents to access.

Both parties use familiar applications. Contact center personnel use the Cisco Agent Desktop and Cisco Supervisor Desktop, and subject matter experts outside of the contact center use the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator or Cisco IP Phone Messenger. This feature helps agents connect with experts on the first try by knowing beforehand whether they are available and how they prefer to be reached.

Video and Cisco Unified Contact Center Express

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express can connect callers and agents through video in a couple of ways: through integration with Cisco TelePresence
™ and Cisco Unified Video Advantage.

Using Cisco TelePresence in combination with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, virtual agents can be connected to callers via the skills-based routing and integrated queuing of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express. Once connected, the agent and customer appear in life size on video displays for a high impact, face-to-face customer service interaction. This feature is ideal for applications in finance, such as branch-office experts, retail for high-end electronics sales, healthcare for remote consultations, and interpretive services, as well as for administrative services such as lobby personnel. It creates the intimacy of a one-on-one meeting and at the same time allows the agent to be in multiple places quickly and easily.

Also, agents and customers can add a level of intimacy to calls by employing video through the Cisco Unified Video Advantage camera. Each of the video-enabled endpoints can take advantage of video among all parties on the call, adding a level of connectedness between the parties that can lead to a more complete and better overall interaction between agents and customers.

Agent Capabilities and Benefits

Each Cisco Unified Contact Center Express seat provides optimal flexibility in your contact center by providing full licensing to use the seat as either an agent or a supervisor seat. Enhanced and Premium agent seats can be either PC- or Cisco Unified IP Phone-based agent stations. Standard seats provide a Cisco Unified IP Phone Agent IP Phone-based agent station. Each seat provides full licensing for Cisco Agent Desktop or Cisco IP Phone Agent, Cisco Supervisor Desktop, Cisco Desktop Administrator, Cisco Historical Reporting Client, and for the Enhanced and Premium versions, Cisco Supervisor and Agent Desktop include on-demand recording. With the Enhanced and Premium versions, even if a PC failure occurs, an agent is fully licensed to continue working through the Cisco IP Phone Agent.

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express keeps the agent in touch with every call through critical data and call-state information by providing the ability to present a screen pop to the agent for each call. Information presented to the agent includes customer-entered data as well as call-state information describing how long the call has been connected to the ACD, how long the call has been in queue, and how long the agent has been talking with the caller.

Cisco Agent Desktop gives agents tools to access information and respond rapidly to customer requests. Voice contact workflows, the enterprise data pane, and the integrated browser display (screen pop) show agents customer data as calls are presented, preventing redirection of calls and the necessity for customers to repeat information. Task automation buttons and the personal phone directory allow agents to instantly activate frequently performed functions that shorten response time and automate after-call work to follow up on a customer inquiry. Collaboration tools such as chat and transfer of caller data help keep responses accurate.

Additionally, Cisco Agent Desktop offers the ability to provide workflows that process business rules based on critical call-state events, the ability to invoke any CRM or other application able to run on the agent's Microsoft Windows desktop, and the ability to display information in the form of a screen pop from the ACD or IVR subsystem to that application.

When the Premium Cisco Outbound Option with preview dialing is enabled, the Cisco Agent Desktop provides all the controls necessary for agents to participate in outbound campaigns. The Premium Outbound option enables either dedicated outbound or seamless blended inbound and outbound call handling for agents.

The ability of Cisco Supervisor Desktop to monitor critical performance metrics and actively chat, monitor, record, and send team messages allows managers to coach, train, and encourage agent behavior so that agents consistently perform their job function and process calls efficiently. The ability to send agents scrolling team messages and chat with individual members or the entire team allows supervisors to coach agents, resolve problems, and instantly communicate business changes. Supervisors can coach agents unobtrusively on cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and help agents resolve customer situations.

Within the supervisor desktop, contact center managers can see team performance, agent statistics, and status at a glance by using easy-to-navigate tabbed pages and graphical reports. To coach agents, they can silently monitor calls and offer encouragement using chat. They can also initiate call recording for later review and training.

Supervisors can interrupt an agent's call to create a three-way conference, and then interact with both the caller and the agent to help resolve a concern. A supervisor can remove the agent from a call using the Intercept feature, allowing the supervisor and caller to complete the call on their own while the agent handles another customer request.

Supervisors can change an agent's state from their desktop. For example, agents may forget to make themselves available to take calls after a break or neglect to log out when they are away from their workstation for an extended period. With Cisco Supervisor Desktop, supervisors can easily log out missing agents or make unintentionally idle agents ready to take calls. This function is critical to highly distributed contact center deployments. Supervisors can also change an agent's skill profile in real time. This capability gives supervisors tactical tools to manage their agent teams and support contact center management objectives.

For mobile supervisors or supervisors who want to be more in tune with their team in the contact center, there is Cisco Mobile Supervisor, which allows supervisors to remain connected to real-time reporting information and monitor their teams from their mobile devices. Supervisors can view a subset of Cisco Supervisor Desktop reports, including a list of queues belonging to a selected team, the queue summary report for a selected queue, and agents belonging to a selected team or a queue, along with their current agent state. If a problem arises, the supervisor is connected, sees the problem, and can communicate with the team to adjust resources appropriately to meet or exceed customer satisfaction requirements.

The Cisco Agent Desktop Browser Edition executes as a thin client from within a commercial web browser, making it easy to deploy and maintain. The Cisco Agent Desktop Browser Edition also includes an agent toolbar, contact data, enterprise data, and agent status information, making it an ideal solution in thin-client applications.

Administration

The Cisco Unified Contact Center Express web-based administration provides a run-anywhere, enterprisewide point of control for single- or multisite contact centers. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express transparently integrates information from Cisco Unified Communications Manager and integrates with the Cisco Unified Communications Manager web-based administration to provide cross access and a common interface. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Administration allows a wide range of real-time reporting statistics across all activity within the contact center, regardless of agent or supervisor location and for all calls in process. In addition, supervisors can use administrative capabilities to dynamically re-skill agents.

Reporting

The Cisco Unified Contact Center Express solution provides the real-time and historical data necessary for mission-critical contact center reporting. Real-time reports are provided both at the supervisor level (integrated with the Cisco Supervisor Desktop) on a per-agent or per-team basis and also at the administration level, across the entire contact center.

When Cisco Unified Contact Center Express is deployed with multiple servers, all servers are members of the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express cluster and can be viewed, monitored, and taken in and out of service. Using open Internet standards and the inherent capabilities of Cisco devices, Cisco Unified Communications Management Suite helps network managers oversee their converged networks while maintaining confidence that their IP telephony environments, including Cisco Unified Contact Center Express, are performing as expected.

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express software takes full advantage of industry-standard hardware platforms, giving you the benefits of many software functions at a modest hardware cost. The open architecture of the system, which includes an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)-compliant database as well as Java interfaces for CTI applications, can integrate with existing contact center solutions, preserving investments in traditional systems and providing a platform for future applications.

Redundant High Availability

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express offers high-availability redundancy for dual server cluster deployments, including support for automatic failover of inbound voice ACD, IVR, and desktop services, as well as database replication and failover and load-balanced redundancy for historical reporting and on-demand recording.

Integrated Service-Creation Environments

The Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Workflow Editor is the service-creation and scripting environment for mapping business rules to call-flow behavior and call treatments. It can operate from any location on the enterprise WAN, and workflows can be uploaded and run on the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express server. This environment is a visual editor that provides a simple, drag-and-drop, easy-to-understand interface for building powerful, custom, business-communication applications.

To help maintain network security in the contact center and throughout the enterprise, Cisco Unified Contact Center Express supports Cisco Security Agent, as well as virus-detection software from the major antivirus software vendors. Cisco Security Agent is a host-based intrusion detection system that provides security to mission-critical enterprise servers and hosts. It provides benefits beyond conventional endpoint security solutions, such as virus-scanning software and firewalls, by identifying and preventing malicious behavior before it can occur. This process helps remove potential known and unknown security risks that threaten enterprise networks and applications. By analyzing behavior rather than relying on signature matching, Cisco Security Agent complements the capabilities of the antivirus software; together, they provide a robust solution to protect your network and reduce operational costs.

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0 Features and Specifications

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0 is available for Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.1, 7.0 and 7.1, as well as for Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 7.0 and 7.1 on integrated services routers and Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business platforms.

• Table 2 describes the feature availability for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0 in the Premium, Enhanced, and Standard versions when it is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.1, 7.0 and 7.1. It also describes the features for Cisco Unified Communications Express 7.0 and 7.1 when it is deployed with Cisco integrated services routers or with the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business.

Note: The following features are not available with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0 when deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 7.0 and 7.1 for Integrated Services Routers or Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business:

Licensing for Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0 varies by feature, as indicated by Table 3. Licenses are either concurrent or named user licenses. All packaging is per user with the exception of the Inbound Voice High Availability server software option.

Concurrent licensing example: Customer has three shifts each of 100 users for a total of 300 unique users. Customer needs to purchase 100 licenses.

Named user licensing example: Customer has three shifts of 100 users for a total of 300 unique users. Customer needs to purchase 300 licenses.

Table 4 lists invoice voice feature available in the different versions of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0 when it is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. Please note that not all these features are available when Cisco Unified Contact Center Express is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express.

Full integration with Cisco Unified Operations Manager, Cisco Unified Campus Manager, and Cisco Unified Resource Manager Essentials, including support for Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) support and alarm service

Included

Included

Included

Support for third-party MIBs

Included

Included

Included

Tracing and local logging

Included

Included

Included

Voicemail Integration

Voice messaging interface

Optional (Cisco Unity® messaging or Cisco Unity Express)

Optional (Cisco Unity messaging or Cisco Unity Express)

Optional (Cisco Unity messaging or Cisco Unity Express)

Maximum number of voice mailboxes supported

Please consult product documentation

Please consult product documentation

Please consult product documentation

Maximum number of voice storage hours

Unlimited (storage limitation hard disk-dependent)

Unlimited (storage limitation hard disk-dependent)

Unlimited (storage limitation hard disk-dependent)

Support for other vendor voicemail

Yes (through call transfer to voicemail system)

Yes (through call transfer to voicemail system)

Yes (through call transfer to voicemail system)

Outbound Voice Features

As Table 5 shows, outbound voice features are available only in the Premium version of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0. Note also that these features are available only when Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0 is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager. They are not available when Contact Center Express is deployed with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express.

Please note that as of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0.1, the Blended Preview Outbound Dialer is no longer sold as a separate option but rather is included at no additional charge in the Premium version. Each Premium version agent may be either an inbound only, outbound only, or a blended inbound and outbound voice agent.

Ability for administrator to create non-North American area code to time-zone mappings

Included

Not available

Not available

Ability for administrator to mark "Do not call" contacts as "Do not call" across all campaigns

Included

Not available

Not available

The summary overview of system maximums for inbound and outbound voice shown in Table 6 are for reference only. All system configurations are required to use the Cisco Contact Center Express Configuration and Ordering Tool to pass required Cisco A2Q bid assurance.

Please note that all deployments containing outbound seats are by definition blended inbound/outbound deployments. In addition, the system maximums listed in Table 6 apply only to Cisco MCS 7816-H3 and MCS 7816-I3, MCS 7825-H3 and MCS 7825-I3, MCS 7835-H2 and MCS 7835-I2, and MCS 7845-H2 and 7845-I2 and later versions of these servers. Older versions of these servers have lower scalability limits, which you can determine by using the Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Configuration and Ordering Tool.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express on Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business

Server

All

All

Agents

50

48

Supervisors

10

5

Monitoring

10

N/A

Recording & Playback

10

N/A

Customer Service Queues

50

48

Historical reporting sessions

2

2

Basic (Standard and Enhanced) and Advanced (Premium) IVR ports

50

48

* Based on 12 email messages per hour per agent.

** See SRND for additional limitations for SPAN-based recording and monitoring

*** 64 for Premium, 32 for Enhanced

Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization

Cisco Unified Workforce Optimization suite assists contact centers in efficiently managing their personnel to deliver consistent customer service matching their business goals. The suite consists of the following components:

• Compliance Recording: This user license bundle enables audio telephony recording either by preconfigured workflows with up to 100 percent recording, or on-demand recording through the recording API. In addition, the Compliance Recording license provides the browser-based user interface to search for and replay recorded contacts within the scope of the user's defined role.

• Quality Manager: This user licensing bundle includes all of the functionality listed within the Compliance Recording bundle plus customized contact quality evaluation and reporting on aggregate quality scores for agents, teams or groups.

• Advanced Quality Manager: This user license bundle includes all of the functionality listed within the Quality Manager bundle plus it adds synchronized agent screen recording.

• Workforce Manager: This system efficiently manages contact center staff and resources to meet customer service-level objectives. The Workforce Manager process includes forecasting contact volume based upon historical trends, and scheduling personnel based upon their work rules to help ensure that target service-level goals are achieved. Agent and supervisor dashboards are available for tracking schedules and managing service levels on an intra-day basis.

Note that Quality Manager, Advanced Quality Manager, and Workforce Manager are available only with the Premium version of Cisco Unified Contact Center Express 7.0.